Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

Senator Leyden did remind me of a time when a now deceased senior counsel who was prone to grandiloquent language put it to a witness in a will case that he was trying to establish the testator was beyond making wills and was perhaps a bit "gaga". He suggested to the elderly relative that the testator was in the habit of soliloquising, a terminology the relative did not follow. The counsel suggested the testator was in the habit of speaking to himself when no one else was present. The witness looked at him for a time and said "to be honest with you, sir, I was never there when he was alone". Such events can occur in these circumstances.

I will return to two particular aspects of the Bill's text. Senator Norris rightly raised the point of multiple searches. When one sees the pile of documents that accumulates through these searches, it is clearly ridiculous that they cannot be cumulative. One must search against the person from whom one is purchasing back to the point when one assumes the last authoritative search was undertaken. Searching on a continual basis seems unnecessary. This is not the time to deal with searches, as the heads of the relevant Bill will be published in July. When a search is carried out, it should be capable of being authenticated and be the end of the matter.

Senator Tuffy and others made a point that is equally true. We should be moving away from the deeds and searches regime towards a title and land certificate.

However, it is one thing to say it, but another thing to do it. It is the case that most modern developments of new housing are on registered land. It is also the case that State authorities opt for registration. The new Property Registration Authority will have to address this issue. One of the roles of the authority will be to set out a strategy to implement registration of title. I have always lived in houses built on unregistered land, with the exception of my house in Roscommon, which has its own problems ——